Here's my very belated reply to Gnu's post of 28 July (about the Saints losing Reggie Bush to the Dolphins):

Coach Payton and the Saints would have been glad to keep Reggie at a reasonable salary for a part-time player. Miami offered him more, so good for him.

Not mentioned in the Miami newspaper article:

The Saints quickly acquired former San Diego free-agent Darren Sproles to play the role that Reggie had been performing: 3rd-down pass-catching back and kick returner. Sproles' numbers in every pertinent category have been markedly better than Bush's over the past few years, and his asking price was reasonable. (It might also be noted that the oft-injured Reggie missed almost exactly half of all regular-season and playoff games during his time in New Orleans, and the Saints had a better won-loss record without him than with him.)

The Sproles signing may not yet have happened when that Miami news article was written, but the Saints HAD already drafted and signed former Heisman winner Mark Ingram, who will be in the mix at RB along with Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory. It's early yet, but he looks VERY good. Why wasn't he mentioned?

Saints should bounce back and go deep into the playoffs again, two years after winning the Super Bowl. They had 28 unresitricted free agents that they might have lost (more than any other team), but they managed to keep just about everyone they wanted to keep. The sole exception was center Jonathan Goodwin, and they immediately signed former Chicago Bear and future Hall-of-Famer Olin Kreutz (sp?) to play that position for a year or two (while youngster Matt Tennant out of Boston College is allowed to develop).

There will be many more "new" starters this year than last, but not because the team lost anyone they wanted; the new faces will be young guys coming into their own, and/or new free-agant signees considerably BIGGER than the guys they're replacing (especially on the defensive front).

The national media are saying nothing about the Saints. I'm tempted to say "Good!," but I doubt that my guys are going to sneak up and take any of their opponents unaware. The coaches around the league know who should be taken seriously, even if the media talking-heads don't...